A Google spokesperson, however, said in response to an email query from ET, “We do not comment on rumours and speculation.”

BENGALURU: Google has taken 1 lakh square feet office space on lease in Bengaluru’s Bagmane World Technology Centre to expand its business in India as part of chief executive Sundar Pichai’s plans to tap into the local market and engineering talent.

The American search engine company struck the deal for the office space recently, three people aware of the matter said on condition of anonymity. “The company is also looking for additional space in Hyderabad, apart from setting up its largest campus,” said another person, who did not want to be identified.

A Google spokesperson, however, said in response to an email query from ET, “We do not comment on rumours and speculation.”

Pichai had in December 2015 said, “We will ramp up our engineering investments at our Bengaluru and Hyderabad facilities. We will also build a huge new campus in Hyderabad.”

The company had said that it will invest about Rs 1,000 crore in building the new campus, which will be spread over seven acres in Gachibowli in Hyderabad and will be its biggest campus outside the US.

Google had in 2015 leased 430,000 sq ft of office space from real estate developer Unitech in the second phase of its Signature Towers II project in Gurgaon. This was in addition to the 160,000 sq ft of space it already had, spread over eight floors in the same complex.

Google had earlier said it expects to double the number of its employees in India to 13,000 by 2019. A person aware of the plans said the company may not immediately expand its headcount significantly but will definitely do so in the next three-five years.

Pichai had said that the company will focus on three areas to make the internet more relevant for Indians and their daily needs, including steps such as setting up free Wi-Fi across at least 100 train stations across the country and adapting Google’s core products to work better on 2G internet connections.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, office space demand in India grew 19% in the first quarter of 2016 from a year ago to 11.7 million sq ft across the top eight markets.